(by Marc Stein, http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=1953283)


  Jack Nicholson actually went skiing this Christmas, instead of filling his
familiar courtside seat at Staples Center. Maybe Jack couldn't handle choosing
between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

  Or maybe Jack just knew he could click to ESPN.com for a minute-by-minute
clock watch from the NBA's answer to Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier.

  Shaq and Kobe can't both claim to be heavyweights, but it's a safe bet that
the mutual chill they share is going to last well beyond this holiday season.
You didn't have to be at Staples to sense that it's going to take years, as it
did for Ali and Frazier, for O'Neal and Bryant to forge any sort of truce.

  "I don't have a hatchet," O'Neal insisted after Miami overcame his early exit
to claim a 104-102 overtime triumph in Shaq-Kobe I.

  "I think you guys keep it going more than me and him do. I'm over it. I've
moved on."

  No he hasn't.

  Shaq seems less over it than his ex-sidekick -- but Kobe hasn't, either. And
don't believe anyone who says otherwise. Their first duel meant more to both
than either would admit, according to the closest thing to a neutral party.

  "Oh, yeah," said Miami's Eddie Jones, Shaq's teammate and Bryant's longtime
Philly pal. "C'mon."

  In case you missed the bout like Jack, or even if you did watch it, follow
along here. Because lots happened -- the consensus being that the day somehow
did live up to the advance billing -- and not all of it was televised.

  9:10 a.m. PT The overhead lights switch on, but the only Lakers practicing
early on this holiday morning are the Laker Girls (no staring allowed). Kobe
has been known to hit the floor hours before a game, a solid hour or two before
anyone else warms up, but he's behind closed doors for this one.

  10:42 a.m. Heat guard Damon Jones is asked to describe how much easier the
game is for him now, roaming the perimeter with O'Neal drawing so much atten-
tion down low. Does it really make a difference, D-Jones? "Can I curse?" he
says. "Bleep yeah." Jones, whose move to point guard has coincided with the
Heat's 10-game win streak, then colorfully runs through a series of Heat play
calls, all of them including a "5." Five, of course, translates to Shaq. "That'
s all I call," Jones says. "The game is so easy now. [Shaq] puts no pressure on
me. He just tells me: 'If you're open, shoot it.' And if you're not open, pass
it back to me.' "

  10:53 a.m. A back door in the Heat's locker room cracks open and a glimpse of
Shaq appears. He's doing deep knee-bends to loosen up. He doesn't look too
friendly.

  10:57 a.m. There's a knock on the door, because Shaq wants out now. He passes
a small cluster of reporters he knows well to duck into more privacy, greeting
them with a steely stare as he passes. Turns out he's not in a chatty mood,
either.

  11:03 a.m. Wade is asked about Shaq dubbing himself a Brick Wall and Bryant a
Corvette. "That's just the kind of quoter he is," Wade says.

  11:58 a.m. Miami players hit the floor and Shaq is actually looking to hug
someone. No, fool -- not Kobe. It's Lakers superfan Norm Pattiz, who for this
special occasion has tweaked the lining of the navy blazer he's wearing. On one
side of the lining is the remnants of Shaq No. 34 Lakers jersey, and the other
side features Kobe's No. 8. Shaq hugs him anyway.

  Noon. Until now, the folks inside Staples had been rather subdued, no doubt
because it's an early tipoff time on a holiday morning (and because they're
almost always subdued). Yet it all changes once Shaq and Kobe are on the floor.
Suddenly everyone's standing and buzzing.

  12:09 p.m. Referee Monte McCutchen approaches Shaq, a Heat co-captain, to ask
if O'Neal wants to join the usual pregame captains' meeting at center court.
Shaq (surprise) declines and lets Eddie Jones greet the Lakers' Lamar Odom and
his Philly pal Bryant.

  12:11 p.m. Shaq finally consents to a handshake … with Sylvester Stallone.
He also swishes a 3-pointer during pre-game warm-ups. Seriously.

  12:16 p.m. Barely one verse into the national anthem, an upper-deck fan blurt
out, "We love you, Shaq."

  12:17 p.m. A specially prepared Shaq montage rolls out on the scoreboard
overhead with a message spliced into the highlights of O'Neal's eight seasons
here.

  You Made A Difference

  An Organization And A City Is Forever Grateful

  The montage also includes taped thank-yous from Magic Johnson, those Laker
Girls (still no staring), Sugar Ray Leonard, Denzel Washington, Penny Marshall
and Andy Garcia.

  Kobe? He is spotted watching the whole thing and, yes, clapping afterward.

  12:20 p.m. Shaq is the first Heat player introduced and gets a raucous ova-
tion. He nods to his wife, who's sitting with family and friends across from
the Miami bench, and then raises his right arm to salute the audience. Eddie
Jones, another ex-Laker, is introduced next, meaning Udonis Haslem is the
afternoon's first player to get booed. ("I think it was 89.2 percent cheers,"
O'Neal said later, "and 11.8 percent boos." Folks were laughing too hard to
tell him that adds up to 101 percent.)

  12:22 p.m. Kobe is introduced last among the Lakers and it actually sounds
like he's getting more boos than Shaq did. But it's tough to tell. There is no
gray area, conversely, when it comes to pregame greetings. Kobe seeks Shaq out
immediately and, with Shaq only half-facing him, grabs Shaq's hand and pats his
left hip. Shaq, in return, makes no eye contact with Kobe and pats him on the
back like a guy who's trying to hurry through an uncomfortable hug as fast as
he can. (Told later that he seemed reluctant to engage in any interplay with
his ex-teammate, Shaq quipped: "Being married, I don't want any interplay or
foreplay with another man.")

  12:25 p.m. Kobe comes out aggressive, driving at Shaq on the game's first
possession. Shaq swats the ball away, but Kobe will not be deterred. Turns out,
in a meeting Friday in which he encouraged his teammates to relax instead of
trying too hard to help him beat Shaq, Kobe was told by those same guys to be
more aggressive on offense than he has been all season. (Kobe later joked that
"I backed the Hummer out of the garage and went straight to the bucket." He's
offended by the Corvette references, obviously.)

  12:46 p.m. Play resumes, but both Shaq and Kobe are out of the game. See?
They still have something in common. The Heat is actually pleased to see Bryant
taking an early rest, because Kobe, by this point, has already knocked in four
three-pointers, even with Jones in his face, making him hoist contested jumpers
.

  12:51 p.m. One member of the O'Neal courtside posse is spotted climbing the
stands to make a McDonald's run. What really stands out is his white T-shirt …
featuring an old picture of Kobe and Shaq, both in uniform, with Bryant resting
his arm on O'Neal's shoulder. Except that a rat is superimposed over Kobe's
face.

  12:55 p.m. Early in the second quarter, Kobe appears to be drilled by Shaq on
a drive. The crowd reacts to the Brick Wall slamming the Corvette, but replays
show the hit wasn't all that hard.

  12:58 p.m. Brian Cook -- yes, Brian Cook -- uncorks a double-clutch, lefty
scoop layup to keep the Lakers up three at 37-34. Believe it or not, this will
stand as the most spectacular move in the game until the fourth quarter.

  1:05 p.m. Shaq jumps a pick-and-roll more actively than usual to confront
Kobe on the perimeter. Kobe travels.

  1:06 p.m. On the next trip downcourt, Shaq uses Kobe's back as a boost and
rises up to catch a Keyon Dooling lob and slams it through. Chris Mihm, Lamar
Odom and Luke Walton watch helplessly in the vicinity. On the way back to his
defensive post, Shaq spots Snoop Dogg in the front row and screams, "I built
this mother-bleepin' place."

  1:21 p.m. It's Kobe's turn to retaliate, with a jumper over Shaq on the
umpteenth pick-and-roll L.A. has called.

  1:25 p.m. Shaq is pulled for the final 55.5 seconds of the first half and
boos ensue. The boos, mind you, are for Stan Van Gundy, since no one came here
to see Bryant on the floor Shaq-less.

  1:50 p.m. Bryant, who had 20 points at the half to Shaq's 11, gets an early
trip to the line in the third quarter. In between free throws, a courtside fan
screams, "You snitch." Loudly.

  1:52 p.m. Kobe, undaunted, answers a Shaq bank shot with his fifth triple.
Again, none of these were gimme threes. He's obviously feeling it.

  1:57 p.m. Chucky Atkins, he of the 15 3-point attempts in Wednesday's win
over New Orleans, drains his fourth triple to stretch the Lakers' lead to eight
at 71-63. It's the biggest lead L.A. forges all afternoon, but the hosts
promptly surrender 10 of the next 12 points to set up a tight finish.

  2:18 p.m. The Lakers have built the lead back up to seven at 80-73. The crowd
launches into the afternoon's second stirring chant of "Ko-be, Ko-be, Ko-be."
Bryant responds by throwing the ball straight out of bounds.

  2:19 p.m. Kobe drives and Shaq gets a piece. Of the ball, not Kobe. Don't be
so cynical.

  2:28 p.m. Wade came close late in the third quarter with his own reverse lay-
up, but Shaq finally knocks Cook out of the Most Acrobatic Play lead with a
scoop layup of his own that I can barely describe. At the end, it looked a bit
like he was shoveling a pizza into the oven.

  2:32 p.m. Kobe, with 36 points at this point and the Lakers clinging tenuous-
ly to an 86-82 lead, is named Carl's Jr. Star of the Game. Little did the good
people at Carl's know that Bryant wouldn't produce another basket; his final
six points would all come from the free-throw stripe.

  2:41 p.m. With 2:15 to play, Bryant does make a rather starry contribution by
driving the ball right at Shaq. O'Neal, who had just put down a follow slam to
tie it at 91-91, fouls hard to pick up his sixth personal. The fans join in as
Ray Charles' famed "Hit The Road Shaq" blares over the sound system. Bryant's
two free throws give L.A. a 93-91 edge and a huge advantage with O'Neal gone.
("I kind of forgot I had five (fouls)," Shaq revealed afterward.)

  2:53 p.m. So much for momentum. Miami survives sans Shaq and even has the
chance to win the game in regulation, with Wade isolated against Jumaine Jones
-- yes, Jumaine Jones -- in the final seconds. Yet Wade, for some reason, makes
no attempt to drive the ball and settles for a jumper just inside the 3-point
arc. He misses badly.

  2:57 p.m. Wade's reluctance to drive on Jumaine Jones seems even more strange
when he produces the first of two tasty spin moves in OT. On this one, he loses
Jones near the free-throw line and banks in a short jumper with his off hand.

  3:03 p.m. Wade does it again, this time with a righty floater. Of course, the
bigger question -- more of a mystery than Wade's passivity at the regulation
buzzer -- is why Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich hasn't switched Bryant onto Wade
by this point.

  3:10 p.m. Eddie Jones and Wade harass Bryant into a rushed, leaning triple at
the buzzer that looked wide from the moment he released it, sending Kobe on a
lonely walk back to the home locker room as Shaq and the rest of the Heat cele-
brated at midcourt. It means No. 8 finishes 1 for 9 from the floor in the four-
th quarter and OT, going scoreless over the final seven-plus minutes. Maybe
Tomjanovich thought Bryant, whose 42-point brilliance was dulled somewhat by
nine turnovers, lacked the gas needed to check Wade in the extra period.
(Whatever the explanation, Rudy T.'s counterpart was gushing afterward. "It
didn't end up just another game," Van Gundy would say. It should be noted,
though, that Van Gundy could also be heard chastising the media for overhyping
the rivalry, saying: "It was ridiculous, in my opinion. I'm old-fashioned,
really. I only care about the game. You would have thought it was J-Lo and Ben
Affleck breaking up.")

  3:44 p.m. O'Neal plops down for his postgame news conference and unleashes
a string of gems that suggest no one overhyped anything. Among them is the con-
firmation that he did not speak to Bryant at all ("No, no, no," Shaq says) and
that he only misses certain things about Los Angeles.

  "The police officers. The people. The kids in the 'hood. Fox Hills Mall.
Beverly Center. All the superstars. And I miss the atmosphere. Don't miss the
traffic and don't miss two or three people."

  Pressed to name those two of three people, Shaq adds: "I don't know. I don't
know their names. Their names have been erased out of my memory."

  Asked, furthermore, whether his "No Layups, No Dunks" vow was applied to
every Laker, O'Neal admits: "Basically everybody, but especially … him."

  Him being Joe Frazier. Or Muhammad Ali. I'll try to figure out who's who by
March 17, when they meet again in Miami.